From what I've seen on the monetization in the mobile Diablo game ... you can pay real money to buy tokens, which you then use to upgrade the end-game runs that drop the best stuff so they drop more and better stuff. And you can spend at an absurdly high rate. Lootboxes at one remove. But it's still a Diablo game, so the loot is random; if you're looking for one specific super-rare thing, more money will make finding it more likely but still won't guarantee it. You can't put an exact number on "how much it costs", because of that randomness.
Anyway, back to posting character adventures. Cythandria has made some progress since my last post.
Before moving on to Hell, I make some equipment changes.
Amulet: Rare with 18 resist all/2 cold skills -> Arch-Angel's Amulet (+2 skills)
Shield: Lidless Wall -> Gemmed Superior Dragon Shield (3x Perfect Diamond, 57 resist all)
Rings: Rares with resist all (17 total) and various other mods including a bunch of mana -> rares with faster cast and individual resists for fire/cold/poison. One of those was the Ormus reward shown in my Normal difficulty post.
Boots: Tearhaunch -> rare with 20 FRW, 30 resist lightning, and various other mods.
Charms: One small charm each with fire, lightning, and poison resist added. Secondary mods +7% MF, +1 strength, +9 life.
Mercenary: Circlet with 5% life steal -> Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest.
Overall, she retains her casting speed and magic find, gets the full 75% resistance in Hell, but loses a big chunk of her mana pool. Sustained casting requires mana potions now even with the Insight mercenary.
After clearing the Blood Moor and Den of Evil at players 8, I lower the count to 5. Her kill speed is just a bit too slow without that change.
Act 1 is actually pretty scary in general, because it has a lot of the enemies that are most dangerous to Cythandria: archers. And unlike archers later on, these don't even use highly visible elemental arrows, so they're harder to dodge. Even an early boss like Coldcrow is not to be taken lightly; I handled her by bombarding her at very long range.
In Tristram, Griswold comes out before I even reach Cain, and takes down Emilio. But by then, the other boss packs are down, and Griswold alone is helpless against Cythandria's quick movement and ranged spells.
The Tower Cellars bring my first close call. An archer boss pack (of course) from past a door on level 2, and suddenly Cythandria is down to barely more than 10 HP. Frantic potion-drinking and teleporting ensues, and she gets out of there in one piece. Only the Oak Sage (which wasn't in the line of fire) saved her.
I eventually worked my way back, and got a cursor on that boss. Extra Strong Cold Enchanted Magic Resistant. Plus there were other boss packs nearby, and it's possible some of those minions were shooting too.
The area does cough up some good stuff, at least.
223 ED on it. Also, the boss pack that nearly killed her was in the T-junction just south of where the maul dropped.
Continuing down, I reach level 5. And I see a pack of archers with fanaticism to the northwest the moment I enter the level. That calls for blindly teleporting away, immediately. Almost anything is safer than taking those on face to face. The main hall adds a pack of archer champions to that - bad news all around. Emilio takes a death, and I end up teleporting through the side wings to avoid entering that hall for a while. Easier to press forward and kill the Countess first before I take that on.
The Countess drops nothing significant. Then I take on the greater threats. First the champions, then the minions, then finally the real boss of the level.
She drops a unique. A worthy reward.
That's not the end of Cythandria's archer troubles, but it is the worst of it. A Cursed Extra Strong Multiple Shots Vile Archer boss in the Hole? Not nearly as much trouble. It's a lot easier to dodge in the cave tileset than in the crypt tileset.
The archers stop appearing in the last segment of the act, and accordingly I make progress smoothly. Finally, we come to Andariel. And ... well, she's vulnerable to fire.
Nothing too special on the drop there. Act 1 of Hell complete at level 80. New items found: Silkweave, Windhammer, Goblin Toe, ethereal Hawkmail.
Act 2, on the whole, is a lot easier than act 1 for this build. There just aren't as many archers. And the ones that are present have highly visible arrows, so they're easy to dodge.
Progress is slow at times, particularly in the Maggot Lair where I'm not willing to teleport forward into unseen and inhabited areas. But the threat level is pretty low. I don't do the whole thing in one session, though; after I notice that monsters seem to be ignoring Emilio, I end the session at the Lost City waypoint, with only the Claw Viper Temple not yet cleared.
The second session of the act starts by covering the short distance to the Valley of Snakes ... which includes Dark Elder. And he drops Gerke's Sanctuary. Not a bad reward for deviating from the "single-pass" scheme. The temple is a rough draw - snakes, more snakes, and Guardians with Bone Warriors. Everything's immune to one of my elements. Fangskin spawns with Might Aura downstairs, but he's still less trouble than in Nightmare.
On to the final segment of the act. And in the palace cellars ...
Oh, yes. Now that's a great item. And a direct upgrade. Tarnhelm is out, Harlequin Crest is in. More skills, more life, more mana.
It's not the only piece of excellent headgear that drops down there, either.
Who needs level 85 areas and boss runs? This session is shaping up to be highly productive with nothing but normal progression.
The false tombs, though? Hardly any good stuff, just lots of enemies to kill and earn XP on.
Duriel puts up a good fight, taking down Emilio and then forcing me to shovel a lot of potions into him once I raise him for a second round. But the big bug can't last forever.
Act 2 complete at level 85. New items found in this act: Hwanin's Refuge, Razortail, Gerke's Sanctuary, Harlequin Crest, ethereal Soul Harvest, Arreat's Face, ethereal Duskdeep, War Traveler.
Cythandria has now officially made it farther than Osmadi, in both level and progression. Three more acts to go.
[Edited to remove some formatting garbage]
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